Marathon's Cryo Archive is a hit, but Bungie admits it needs to be more accessible

The Marathon Cryo Archive has been roundly conquered at this point, and Bungie’s much-touted endgame mission proves that it still knows how to put a memorable encounter together. It’s an intricate and unforgiving series of combat encounters and puzzles, fusing the challenge of the best Destiny raids with the multiplayer tension inherent to the extraction shooter. However, after watching the race to a world-first completion play out, and taking feedback from everyone else fighting through the deck of the UESC Marathon, Bungie has acknowledged that it might be a little too restrictive for the average player.

“Congratulations to all the runners who’ve been battling it out in the floating death fridge we call Cryo Archive,” Marathon game director Joe Ziegler comments via X. “We’ve been watching and ingesting all the thoughts and feedback that we’re hearing, aggregating it and taking it down in notes. After this weekend we’ll spend some time looking into feedback and thinking of the next iterations we want to make.” On the cards are alternative schedules, the possibility for solos, and some tuning for its especially brutal drop RNG.

In case you haven’t seen what awaits at the pinnacle of the multiplayer game yet, here’s a quick rundown. Upon infiltrating the abandoned colony ship, you must find your way into six numbered vaults, each of which is packed with loot but requires careful thinking and some sharp shooting to access. Every location also has a ‘subroutine’ disc that must be collected, and once you’ve got them all, you can create the item required to unlock the seventh and final vault. There, the Compiler serves as the ultimate boss between your squad and the best rewards. Oh, and then you still have to exfil to get your treasure to safety.

You can see the world-first clear in the video above, featuring ‘Tyraxe,’ ‘Bravo,’ and ‘Noxious’ finally succeeding after a twelve-hour stretch, along with some of the potent new gear they get their hands on (I won’t spoil it all here). Unfortunately, not everyone got as lucky as them. The problem is that the subroutines are not guaranteed; far from it. Getting one is subject to the whims of some vicious RNG, and that’s providing you manage to fulfill all the conditions to even unlock each of the vaults, and aren’t blown to pieces by other teams when trying to move between them.

Add all of that to the fact that the Cryo Archive is currently only available on weekends, and most players are going to struggle to ever see the Compiler for themselves. I’m all for the elusiveness and challenge of an endgame activity like this; I still fondly remember our very first week attempting Destiny’s Vault of Glass, where we couldn’t even manage to get in the front door before we had to call it a night. However, as someone who works weekends, I’m not sure I’d ever find the time to commit to plundering the Cryo Archive.

Ziegler has previously defended the scheduling, explaining that it was built around three pillars: needing to prepare and gear up for the raid, limiting the frequency that players can snag the Cryo Archive’s high-end rewards, and the logistics of wanting to ensure there’s an active pool of combatants whenever you queue. However, he says the team is “always iterating,” and now notes that “options for players who can’t play on weekends” are at the top of Bungie’s current list of considerations.

Addressing the RNG concerns, Ziegler remarks that Bungie is thinking about ways that subroutines could be “more guaranteed as a drop from vaults,” although he stops short of saying they’ll be given out in every vault you enter. He also says that solos are under consideration, wondering, “Is there any way to play this map without joining a crew?”

Ziegler notes that any potential changes “may take some time to figure out so I can’t guarantee quick solutions here, but we’ll definitely discuss these topics as a team this week.” He adds, “Thanks for sticking with us as we evolve the game, and helping us fight the good fight against the cyborgs, robots, and aliens.”